TV Ratings March 20: Married delivers Nine’s survey best

• Nine’s 2017 continues to get better with survey best of 24.9%• Married At First Sight sets another record with a 1.23m Monday• Seven share drops to Monday survey low, MKR Coles special over 1m• Controversy over The Biggest Loser contestants doesn’t lift audience• Monday AFL footy shows return for new season to Nine and Fox Footy

Nine’s 2017 continues to lift as the channel posts its best survey share in the sixth week of survey with 24.9%. Driving the record share again was Married At First Sight which posted its second audience high in two days.

Nine ranked #1 in primary and combined channel share as the margin between Nine and Seven increased in Nine’s favour.

TEN again posted share in single figures with what is its toughest start to a week this year. TheProject 7pm was the only program over 500,000 and the only primetime show in the top 20.

The Monday night AFL footy shows returned in Melbourne with Nine’s FootyClassified screening around 10pm to 139,000 in that market, winning the timeslot.

Fox Footy’s Monday lineup was back too with AFL 360, featuring a new set and the AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, attracting 70,000 nationally. Later in the night On The Couch featured the Melbourne captain NathanJones with 49,000 nationally.

Monday night’s edition of the Matty Johns’ show did 71,000 on Fox League.

Seven

Seven News was the metro network champ with 975,000 and 930,000. Last week the weekday bulletins averaged 958,000 and 915,000 across the hour with both half hours winning their slot.

Home and Away was into a new week with a slower start for a wedding week with 723,000. The series averaged 678,000 last week.

The major sponsor should have been happy with My Kitchen Rules last night. Much of the episode took part in a supermarket including the judging with guest judge CurtisStone taking part. The audience was over 1m, which the show didn’t manage on Monday last week.

Seven then went Monday movie with Captain America: Winter Soldier with 296,000. Our TV guide promised the Melbourne gangland special episode of Murder Uncovered but that is still being held for a later date.

Nine

A Current Affair easily won the timeslot and had a great start to the week with 961,000 watching stories about cruise ships, budget beauty and a credit card crisis. Last week the program averaged 765,000.

Two couples committed “forever” last night on Married At First Sight with a wedding episode that rated well. So well that it set the second audience high for the 2017 series in two days – 1.23m. It becomes the most-watched show on Nine since mid-January on a Sunday night with Nine News Sunday on 1.24m.

Married won its timeslot in each east coast capital, drew level with MKR in Adelaide yet trailed MKR in Perth.

An audience of 686,000 stayed with Nine for House Husbands, which was a record for the current season as it easily won its timeslot.

TEN

The Project 7pm was best with 548,000 featuring Steve Price making his first Monday appearance since returning from the jungle. The Biggest Loser’sShannanPonton was a guest early in the program, but he didn’t seem to get long to explain the new format of the reality show that launched a week ago.

Speaking of TBL, the program’s first Monday audience was on 335,000, which saw it miss the top 20 and rank fourth in the timeslot.

TEN’s Monday movie Red 2 did 242,000 after 8.30pm

ABC

Australian Story was close to 600,000 after 524,000 a week ago.

Four Corners then did 469,000 which was down 100,000 on last week.

Media Watch was on 511,000 and then Q&A did 396,000.

SBS

The intriguing first episode of The Doctor Who Gave UpDrugs did 216,000.